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The author of this article is a Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and also a student of Ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement. Her Ikebana master since 1978 has been Takashi Sawano, a Master of the Kohdoh School. In this article, the author shares her experiences of studying and practising Ikebana over the last 30 years, and how it can be used to promote personal well‐being and creativity. This has included developing a Japanese sanctuary garden within a mental health service setting and running Ikebana workshops for staff and patients to promote well‐being and to explore creativity.

This article is an account of an ambitious change management effort across the inter‐organisational divide of health and education. It focused on improving the relationships between staff in health and education sectors, to enable people to work together with a sense of shared purpose and joint vision: to get young people with early psychosis back into education and training, and to keep them there. It involved working on people's mindsets, and discarding long‐held negative expectations of what mental health service users can achieve. The project is based in London.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the impact of social exclusion on mental health in Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities and make suggestions for services needed to address it. The context of significant financial cuts in public sector budgets in the UK and change in the commissioning landscape mean there are significant risks of these vulnerable communities falling even further behind.

The authors, both currently engaged in clinical practice, draw on mental health and social work perspectives to review key areas in which social exclusion impacts on the life chances of members of GRT communities. Some examples of good current provision are included as is a case study which illustrates the problematic social context in contemporary relations between traditional Gypsy/Travellers and the settled community, and the impact on family life.

Research findings from contemporary studies are cited, which show members of these communities suffer significant inequalities in all health and social spheres.

The GRT communities have not been listed in census categories until this year (2011).

The paper will hopefully contribute to raising public awareness, and support members of the community in participation in policy and decision making.

This paper arises out of interdisciplinary collaboration between a psychiatrist and a social worker with the support of the voluntary sector. The discussion highlights the gaps in commissioning arrangements and hitherto poor support for health and social care needs of the GRT communities.

The luxury brands sales in emerging markets will see rapid growth. When entering the emerging markets, luxury fashion brands always find it challenging to balance adaption with local consumer culture and standardization to maintain their global brand image. The present study attempts to examine this intriguing issue of adaptation and standardization and many other challenges for luxury brands in the emerging market by focusing on China’s luxury market. A case study on China is conducted, which consisted of reviewing academic literature and consulting trade reports, examining over 50 luxury brands’ Chinese websites, reading newspaper articles, conducting field trips to luxury retail outlets, and studying luxury brands’ advertisements in major Chinese fashion magazines. We identified five intriguing market characteristics that must be taken into account in order to succeed in this market. Specifically, we found that to perform well in China’s luxury market, luxury brands should have a good understanding of the conflicting Chinese social cultural sentiments toward luxury consumption. Luxury brands should seek a balance between standardization and adaptation and appeal to both consumers’ converging needs and their desire for products that embrace local elements. Further, given the unique consumer characteristics, luxury brands should better serve the young and economically diverse consumer base in China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether there are any effects on Hong Kong university students’ national identity after short-term study abroad. If so, what sources of influence from the short-term study abroad programme contribute to the students’ change in national identity?

Using the case study approach, 85 students completed a questionnaire, and a small group of 12 students were invited to individual interviews for further investigation.

Results show that the students’ perceptions of national identity are multiple and complicated through the lens of four components of national identity. The responses of students’ perceptions of change in identity were pointed to three statements: “feeling prouder of being Chinese”, “Hongkongers are very different from mainland Chinese” and “no change in my views of national identity”. The influences of study abroad experiences on national identity varied, dependent on the students’ interaction with the local and non-local people, and reflection on their own identity, whether on the cultural or political differences or on national achievements.

The findings of this study can inform educators and administrators to enhance profound short-term study abroad experience for the students. The limitation of this case study is that it is concerned with understanding how small numbers of students construct meaning from their individual experience. It is recommended that studies with larger sampling sizes be conducted to investigate students’ perceptions of their national identity before and after studying abroad.

Considering the increasing number of Hong Kong youths who have participated in these short-term study-abroad programmes in higher education, the findings of this study are significant in terms of awakening the students’ taken-for-granted national identity, if any. The programme serves as a means of triggering the students’ feelings and emotions regarding their identity in different national, social and cultural contexts. This can inform policy makers, educational administrators and teachers to formulate an appropriate national education curriculum for the youth.

The Hong Kong government recently reformed pre‐primary education with the introduction of a voucher scheme. At the time this policy caused considerable opposition from across Hong Kong Society. This paper seeks to use Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis to explore a key policy text and seeks to assess to what extent such an analytical framework can help develop a better understanding of the processes of policy development.

The paper uses critical discourse analysis methods and applies these to a specific policy text relating to the reform of pre‐primary education.

The paper suggests that critical discourse analysis can provide a useful analytical tool for analysing the complexities of the policy development process. In particular it surfaces key tensions within policy, such as those between commitments to equity and efficiency, that may have a significant impact on the outcomes of subsequent policy implementation.

The paper is based on a small scale study. Its findings are tentative. There is some merit in the approach adopted, but the use of this approach in relation to policy development requires further work to develop it.

The paper adds to the understanding of how a range of methods of data analysis can help develop a more sophisticated understanding of the nuances of policy development.

Jean M. Bartunek is the Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris chair and professor of organization studies at Boston College as well as a Fellow (since 1999) and a past president (2001–2002) of the Academy of Management. Her Ph.D. in social and organizational psychology is from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her substantive research interests focus on organizational change, conflict associated with it, and organizational cognition, and her methodological interests center around ways that external researchers can collaborate with insider members of a setting to study the setting. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and on the editorial boards of multiple other journals. She has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters and 5 ([co]authored or co-edited) books.